El Salvador invokes emergency powers after surge in homicides
San Salvador, El Salvador Reuters El Salvador’s Congress approved on Sunday emergency powers that temporarily suspended some constitutional protections after the Central American country recorded a sharp rise in killings attributed to criminal gangs. Police reported a total of 62 homicides on Saturday in the nation of some 6.5 million people. It was the highest […]
Canada launches $C250 million fund to tackle gun violence
Toronto, CanadaReuters Canada launched a $C250 million fund to curb gun violence, earmarking a significant amount to stop gun smuggling at the border, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said on Wednesday. The fund will be used to help municipalities and Indigenous communities prevent gun and gang violence, and in banning of more than 1,500 models of […]
Murders in Mexico fall 3.6 per cent in 2021, but femicides rise
Mexico City, MexicoReuters Murders in Mexico slightly dropped in 2021, falling 3.6 per cent from the previous year, though femicides rose, according to preliminary government data released on Thursday. The drop in murders is a win for President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who took office in late 2018 pledging to bring down record levels of […]
Canada murder rate in 2020 hits 15-year high, pushed up by mass shooting
Reuters The murder rate in Canada last year rose to its highest level since 2005, pushed up in part by the country’s worst-ever mass shooting, in which 22 people died, Statistics Canada said on Thursday. Statscan also noted societal stresses it said had been caused by lockdowns linked to the COVID-19 pandemic. Royal Canadian Mounted […]
Haiti: Surge in violence rattles Caribbean nation as poverty, fear deepens
EVENS SANON and DÁNICA COTO, of Associated Press, report from Haiti where an incident in which a pastor and three parishioners were kidnapped during a livestreamed Easter service is just one of the latest in an escalating trend for violence in the impoverished Caribbean nation…
US teen girls at risk in dating violence, study says
New York City, USThomson Reuters Foundation One in four US teenage girls killed in a homicide is slain by her dating partner, research showed this week, exposing details about the “taboo” issue of dating violence among young people. Teen and adolescent girls are often embarrassed or reluctant to talk about violence, while some schools and […]
Women killed at “alarming” rate in Brazil, rights body says
Thomson Reuters Foundation Four women have been killed every day so far this year in Brazil, a rate the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights called “alarming” on Monday. The IACHR, the human rights arm of the 35-member Organization of American States, said more must be done to prevent and prosecute femicides in Brazil. Femicide is […]
Brazil sets new record for homicides with almost 64,000 in 2017
A record 63,880 people were killed in Brazil in 2017, a three per cent increase on the 2016 figures for homicides and an ignominious new record. The Guardian reports that figures from the independent thinktank, the Brazilian Public Security Forum, show an average of 14 people were killed by police every day – a 20 […]